Who Can Count to 100?

With just a little help from grandma on the tens...

Global Big Day

Easy to see why Merlins are considered "cute".

Is today.  It's a day when folks all over the world go out to see how many species of birds they can find. I was thinking that migration was kinda slow getting going this year and maybe this was a little early.

Then over the past week a veritable cascade of new birds for the year started showing up. Looks like good timing! 

Yesterday we found a Merlin in a residential neighborhood in Johnstown...while garage sale-ing of all things....and got new birds here in our home county all day. House Wren, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Grey Catbird on a morning walk.....

Then as I sat at the table here in the kitchen last night, thinking about going to bed, the Chimney Swifts arrived in the kitchen chimney and began twittering up a storm. Nice.

Care for a snack?

This morning I did not want to get up at four. It is still dark. Bed is warm...pillow soft....The dawn chorus is still mostly robins....but I was awake, so I took the doggos out....

and was greeted by the twittering sky dance of an American Woodcock. I hadn't heard one in weeks, but there was no mistaking the feather sounds, and then the peenting from the heifer pasture.

Good start to the day. We have a lot going on today, but I will fit all the birding I can in between the family stuff and chores....who knows what the hunt will bring!

I'm kinda excited.

This Canada Goose is not concerned about the cascade behind him

**Speaking of garage sales...if anyone sees any of those cheap black plastic pots that large plants and small trees come home from the store in for sale, could you be kind enough to give me a shout? I need to get my cannas out and I really don't want to put them in the ground this year. They grow so much better potted.

The Things you See

Pony Express

Yesterday a 42 minute visit to the boat launch, just after eight in the morning, yielded the swallow extravaganza, plus a Solitary Sandpiper, first of the year, and both Yellowlegs...oh, and a couple of spotties as well.

I think this little guy was in training

Because just after these photos he threw up his head
and jumped in the ditch

To say the least, it was a productive visit.

We went back for a few minutes in the afternoon, after we picked Becky up from work. Not much in the way of birdiness; people were fishing, cars coming and going etc. and it just wasn't a good time.

Thus the boss and I sat at one of the pic-a-nic tables, watching a few Northern Rough-winged Swallows swooping around...they nest in niches between the stones of the old aqueduct....and chatting casually.

He exclaimed, "That's not a bird." and indicated something fluttering over the pool where all the goodies congregate.

"It's just a swallow," I argued.

However, the binoculars said otherwise.

It was notabird at all. It was a bat. It swooped and dove over the pool just like one though, slapping the water at intervals as it caught some insect or other.

It was really interesting to watch it. Finally it came right over near us and I realized that it was not brown like the usual run of bats around here. It was bright cinnamon red.

Horse race....well sorta...the horse now in front passed the other one
like it was standing still
outta sight in seconds!

Could it be an Eastern Red Bat?

When we came home I checked out range maps and it is certainly possible. Sure wasn't colored like any of the other bats we have ever seen.

Cool, a lifer of a different sort than what we usually pursue. I have to give this blogger credit for me even knowing such a critter existed......Sadly the camera couldn't find it so no photos.

My turn to wait while he looked at stuff....

And then this morning after pre-dawn dog walking I opened the microwave to find a tiny garden gnome with a pink flamingo. I have no idea who found this little thing, but someone combined my dislike of gnomes with my love of flamingos (I check the ABA report daily to make sure someone has seen the one in Florida) and had some fun with me.

I am sure the culprit will reveal herself later when the rest of the crew gets up. I wonder if this one will attend weddings and travel the world like Hezzie did. Oh, and by the way, one of those horrible wind storms earlier this year separated poor Hezzie from his boots. I had a sad. 

Hezzie at Liz's wedding before he parted company with his feet.

Swallows!

This stump full of swallows greeted us when we arrived at the boat launch this morning. I have never seen anything like it. Mostly Tree Swallows, but a bunch of Cliff Swallows, at least one Bank Swallow, and the usual complement of Northern Rough-winged Swallows that nest in the old Aqueduct.

Been Neglecting

Pine Siskins with American Goldfinch

Hooded Merganser

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Yellow-rumped Warbler

European Starling

Black-capped Chickadee

Killdeer

The birds we've been seeing....

Greater Yellowlegs

Blue-winged Teal

3 Species of Swallows in one shot

Ghosts

Of the Outer Banks

Missing

and presumed...sick.....really, really sick. 

When you live with a preschooler they bring stuff home....all kinds of cute crafts, skinned knees and elbows, an amazing store of exciting new knowledge...and bugs....

They bring home lots and lots of contagious bugs, and generous young folks that they are, they share.

We have perhaps the most wonderful preschooler in the world here at our place.

Thus we also get bugs....

Everyone in the family fell like dominoes to a stomach virus of horrific proportions over the past few days. Only one convenience in the house so....it was great fun.

Everyone is either well, or at least on the mend now, but that was ugly.

Hope no one else catches it. 

Logging a Long Time Ago

The other day I chanced to overhear a conversation from the living room. The boss was regaling Jade with tales his mother told him of the logging camps up around Boonville when she was a young lady.

She cooked in a diner/restaurant that we think was named the Brown Derby.

The loggers would come out of the woods periodically and always stopped in for some of the wonderful meals served there.

Peg was the chief pie maker and I can personally attest to her incredible powers with crust and filling. Her pies were much in demand for church bake sales in later days.

I couldn't help but feel privileged to have such a close connection with a time so long ago and so different from today, and to have heard first-hand so many great stories....because although I don't know as many of them as the boss does, I did hear a number of them.

The memories begged to be put in the Farm Side, so that is what I am doing this week.

Meanwhile, here are some of the research links I am using.

Fascinating stuff...do read if you have the time.

Life in a log camp

Food in a log camp

Supper at a modern camp...on the Golden Road!

The Blacksmith Shop

Some pictures

Some really big loads of logs

The Golden Road

Happy Easter

Low Life Still Life

At Beardsley Reservoir

Just a bad bird shot that turned out kinda cool

Another without the cormorant

Appomattox Courthouse

Who loves having his picture taken?
Not this guy.
You can see why I always sneak up from behind

Where we encountered the ghost...Becky and I
heard footsteps right behind us as we walked down this remote roadway....counting birds and enjoying the beauty
We thought it was the boss who had gone farther than we did toward some monuments
he wanted to see.
We both heard the loud, crunching footsteps in the gravel, but ignored them for quite a distance...
Until we turned around to find
No One There. 

Does anyone know the story of this tree and gravestone?
Update, thanks Denny for the info...this is the grave of Lafayette Meeks